kjehan

7Comments

When he was born, his name seems to have been registered as Raby (Births Deaths Marriages).I’ve never seen him called Rabi (Rab in many dozens of contemporary papers). His son’s birth was registered as Rabbi.

Hi. He was Rabbi, Rab for short. Raby was a misspelling. It is a Romany/gypsy name, nothing to do with the Scots abbreviation of Robert. It is from the Hebrew word for teacher: gypsies in Britain often had Old Testament names. As was often the case then, sons were named after fathers. I have researched Rab and written a book about him. See also http://www.theevergreen.co.uk